March 1976

Purchase To Read More

Digital Issue ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. *A printed copy of this issue is not included. $7.99

Print + Digital All Access Subscription ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. Plus, subscribe to get Print, Online and Tablet access to the next 12 new issues to be released as well as Online access to archives back to 1845. $99.00

Features

The Metabolism of Alcohol

Overconsumption of alcohol can cause cirrhosis and death not only because alcoholism promotes malnutrition but also because alcohol and its products disturb liver metabolism and damage the liver cells

By Charles S. Lieber

Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds in Nature

These multiple-ring hydrocarbon molecules have been found in soils and sediments around the world. They are unusually stable, and their origins have presented an intriguing puzzle.

By Max Blumer

The Meteorology of Jupiter

The visible features of the giant planet reflect the circulation of its atmosphere. A model reproducing those features should apply to other planetary atmospheres, including the earth's

By Andrew P. Ingersoll

Will the Universe Expand Forever?

The recession of distant galaxies, the average density of matter, the age of the chemical elements and the abundance of deuterium together suggest that the expansion cannot be halted or reversed.

The Resources of Binocular Perception

Studies with steteograms that change at random reveal that the perceptual system extracts depth and motion information from the visual input even before we are conscious of what we see

By John Ross

The Small Electronic Calculator

"Pocket-sized" calculators are based on a single microelectronic chip. The chip circuits and their associated components form an information-processing system of considerable sophistication.

By Eugene W. McWhorter

Social Spiders

Most adult spiders lead solitary lives. A few species, however, are gregarious and others even build large communal webs. Both degrees of spider sociality can be observed among species native to Mexico

By J. Wesley Burgess

Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting

This new technique, which is capable of identifying and isolating closely related types of animal cells at rates of up to 5,000 cells per second, holds much promise for investigations of cell biology

By Leonard A. Herzenberg, Leonore A. Herzenberg and Richard G. Sweet

Departments

50 and 100 Years Ago, March 1976

Science and the Citizen, March 1976

Letters

Letters to the Editors, March 1976

Recommended

Books, March 1976

Mathematical Recreation

Mathematical Games, March 1976

Departments

The Authors, March 1976

Bibliography, March 1976

Purchase To Read More

Digital Issue ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. *A printed copy of this issue is not included. $7.99

Print + Digital All Access Subscription ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. Plus, subscribe to get Print, Online and Tablet access to the next 12 new issues to be released as well as Online access to archives back to 1845. $99.00

Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.